"IS ANYBODY PAYING ATTENTION?" The mindful view of an educated Buddhist blogger who uses critical thinking, evidence, facts, and investigation to come up with his opinions instead of fear based ideologies.

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Pay Attention - This Is History!

I want to impart a little history on some of my Facebook Friends. LBJ was in office from November 22, 1963 – January 20, 1969. When Martin Luther King was personally lobbying Washington, D.C. politicians and the White House about the civil rights act, they ended up meeting in the oval office a few times. As to the exact words used, only they would know, BUT, if the recollections of people who knew both of them are accurate, this is what transpired. Lyndon Baines Johnson told Martin Luther King that they had to be "pragmatic" and use a more subtle approach about civil rights and people of color protesting. What he was asking him to do, the same way politicians and other do today is, to tell you to wait until "the country is ready" for change. Actually only small hand fulls of people weren't ready for change. That would be Southern racists. Recently someone from my past told me she was voting for the more "pragmatic" candidate, and because Hillary is a woman. Now think about this, feminists, politicians told you for years that you had to be pragmatic about Women's Rights. Did you want to wait some more? That isn't what I remember you telling me while you were burning your bras and marching on capitals. In my opinion, this causes me stress to hear for two reasons. One, that word I can't stand, pragmatic, means "wait longer" and nothing ever gets done. I actually know black people who are voting for Trump and Hillary Clinton, considering she hasn't done women, minorities, or children any good for decades and was originally a Republican, I find that amazing. Her ideologies still are conservative.I would like you all to imagine if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had decided to be pragmatic (wait longer for something to change on it's own) and gave up the civil rights movement which, some people don't realize, actually installed civil rights for all people, with black Americans in the forefront, which was the closest thing to reparations they are ever going to see. Today a friend of mine saw black people like Chris Rock seeing things from his own perspective and sees Chris Rock's view as one sided. As I reminded him on social media, you never saw black people treating white people like this:

And you never saw Native Americans killing White Europeans over their native lands, or for that matter, handing them blankets full of small pox to wait and watch them die. I could go on, but the point is, it has been one sided as far as that goes. I don't blame anyone who has been s**t on for being upset. I, as a recovering alcoholic don't want to hang on to resentments (Especially ones I learned from someone else through fear and insecurity.) so, as the Dalai Lama says, "We all need to learn global responsibility". I am not asking people to not watch your back I am only saying don't let the defensive attitude control your frontal approach.

When we realize that we are all creatures of the earth and STOP letting past resentments based on fear based insecurities rule our lives, we will be free. That means no more acting superior for any reason (religion, race, social standing, success, etc.).

No matter what you think you don't deserve more respect, love, or compassion as a human being, than anyone else by virtue of who you are, only by how you treat other people.

AND NOW -

To those who keep wanting to be more pragmatic, and wait for life to change slowly on it's own, I have been hearing those words from people who don't want us to progress, since I was a child. I am done waiting.

I want you all to think about this one question.

Where would African Americans/Black Americans be right now in America, if Dr. Martin Luther King had waited to be "pragmatic"? Like I said, LBJ used those words in 1963 and signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and when I look at footage of a Trump convention I see people who still haven't learned ONE F**KING THING about equality in FIFTY TWO F**KING YEARS.

About Me

I am an Arizona native, born and raised in Phoenix, although I have lived for brief times in other places. I am what one would call a Centrist. I don't believe in radical left or right stances and refuse to let the low information, regressive, right wing people call me "liberal" since that would be left of reality based on opinion, and I believe in facts and research of evidence.